System and method for ensuring continuous communication between a user device and an emergency dispatcher unit

ABSTRACT

A system and method for ensuring continuous communication between a user device and an emergency dispatcher unit. The method includes establishing a first communication link between a user device and an emergency dispatcher unit via a first application installed on the user device; receiving reconnection information based on the first communication link; monitoring the first communication link for detection of an imminent crash of the first application based on analysis of connection parameters; and establishing, using the reconnection information, a second communication link between the user device and the emergency dispatcher through a second application when an imminent crash is detected, where the second communication link is established before the first application has crashed, such that there is continuous transmission of communication between the user device and the emergency dispatcher unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/397,513 filed on Sep. 21, 2016, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method formanaging communication between a user device and an emergency dispatcherunit, and more specifically to a system and method for ensuringcontinuous communication between a user device and an emergencydispatcher unit during a transmission.

BACKGROUND

Mobile devices, such as smart phones, tablets, wearable servers and thelike, have become ubiquitous and are used daily by many for a variety ofpurposes such as browsing the internet, sharing files, playing games,purchasing online products and services, and so on. Notwithstanding theincreased use of these functions, the main feature of mobile devicesremains communicating with other people. Mobile devices offer manyoptions for communication, including voice, text, email and videomessaging with family, friends, co-workers and authorities.

Many of these functions are implemented using applications installed onan operating system running on the mobile device. For example,communication applications, such as Viber®, WhatsApp®, native textmessaging applications, and the like, allow user device owners tocommunicate with other device owners via these applications over anetwork connection, such as the internet. As with any kind ofapplication, they can become vulnerable to occasional failures anderrors. While some errors may only have a minor impact on the operationof the device, such as slightly delayed responses, some errors may causea complete application failure, or a crash.

The outcome of such a failure may be a disconnected or dropped call,failure to transmit data, incomplete sending of messages, and so on.These crashes may simply be a nuisance when dealing with non-essentialapplications associated with, for example, social networks, news,sports, games, and the like, and a user can simply restart theapplication after the crash to continue its functionality. However, incases where the application's task is more urgent, such as when it isused to communicate and transmit voice and multimedia information to anemergency dispatcher, the communication stability and reliability isessential.

While that are currently a variety of solutions available for handlingdifferent kinds of issues that users may encounter while using emergencyapplications for mobile devices, none of them provides a solution thatensures continuous communication between a user device, e.g., a mobiledevice, and an emergency dispatcher unit, e.g., 9-1-1 dispatcher in faceof an application failure.

It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution that wouldovercome the challenges noted above.

SUMMARY

A summary of several example embodiments of the disclosure follows. Thissummary is provided for the convenience of the reader to provide a basicunderstanding of such embodiments and does not wholly define the breadthof the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of allcontemplated embodiments, and is intended to neither identify key orcritical elements of all embodiments nor to delineate the scope of anyor all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one ormore embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detaileddescription that is presented later. For convenience, the term “someembodiments” may be used herein to refer to a single embodiment ormultiple embodiments of the disclosure.

Certain embodiments disclosed herein include a method for ensuringcontinuous communication between a user device and an emergencydispatcher unit, comprising establishing a first communication linkbetween a user device and an emergency dispatcher unit via a firstapplication installed on the user device; receiving reconnectioninformation based on the first communication link; monitoring the firstcommunication link for detection of an imminent crash of the firstapplication based on analysis of connection parameters; andestablishing, using the reconnection information, a second communicationlink between the user device and the emergency dispatcher through asecond application when an imminent crash is detected, wherein thesecond communication link is established before the first applicationhas crashed, such that there is continuous transmission of communicationbetween the user device and the emergency dispatcher unit.

Certain embodiments disclosed herein also include a system for ensuringcontinuous communication between a user device and an emergencydispatcher unit, the system comprising: a processing circuitry; and amemory, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by theprocessing circuitry, configure the system to: establish a firstcommunication link between a user device and an emergency dispatcherunit via a first application installed on the user device; receivereconnection information based on the first communication link; monitorthe first communication link for detection of an imminent crash of thefirst application based on analysis of connection parameters; andestablish, using the reconnection information, a second communicationlink between the user device and the emergency dispatcher through asecond application when an imminent crash is detected, wherein thesecond communication link is established before the first applicationhas crashed, such that there is continuous transmission of communicationbetween the user device and the emergency dispatcher unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter disclosed herein is particularly pointed out anddistinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification.The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of thedisclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a network diagram of a system for ensuring continuouscommunication between a user device and an emergency dispatcher unitaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of ensuring continuouscommunication between a user device and an emergency dispatcher unitaccording to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It is important to note that the embodiments disclosed herein are onlyexamples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachingsherein. In general, statements made in the specification of the presentapplication do not necessarily limit any of the various claimedembodiments. Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventivefeatures but not to others. In general, unless otherwise indicated,singular elements may be in plural and vice versa with no loss ofgenerality. In the drawings, like numerals refer to like parts throughseveral views.

The various disclosed embodiments include a method and system forensuring continuous communication between a user device and an emergencydispatcher unit. An emergency communication application is enabled toestablish a first communication link between the user device and theemergency dispatcher unit. The system collects reconnection informationin order to readily establish a second communication link if necessary.One or more connection parameters are monitored and analyzed based onthe first communication link to detect an imminent crash of theemergency application. When a malfunction of the application isdetected, the system establishes the second communication link using thereconnection information, such as causing a dialer of the user device todial a specific telephone number associated with the emergencydispatcher, before the first communication link is lost. Dialing usingthe second communication link enables the user device and the emergencydispatcher unit to remain connected over the second communication linkprior to the crash of the emergency application.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary and non-limiting schematic diagram of a system100 for ensuring continuous communication between a user device and anemergency dispatcher unit according to an embodiment. The system 100comprises a network 110 which enables communication between thedifferent elements of the system 100 connected to the network 110. Thenetwork 110 may be a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN),metro area network (MAN), the Internet, the worldwide web (WWW), and thelike.

One or more user devices (UDs) 130, are communicatively connected to thenetwork 110, i.e., UD 130-1 through 130-m, where ‘m’ is an integerhaving a value of ‘1’ or larger. The UD 130 may be, for example, a smartphone, a mobile phone, a laptop, a tablet computer, a wearable server,or any other device capable of sending and receiving application data. Afirst application, such as an emergency application (app) 131 isinstalled on the UD 130. The emergency app 131 is software that allowsfor the establishment of a communication link that enables the UD 130 tosend to and receive from an emergency dispatcher unit (EDU) 140 data,text, multimedia, audio, live streaming, and the like, through thenetwork 110.

The EDU 140 may be for example, a police dispatcher, a medicaldispatcher, a fire department dispatcher, and similar emergency systemsto which a UD 130 is connected to or is attempting to connect to via afirst communication link. The first communication link is a channelthrough which a user associated with the UD 130 and a dispatcherassociated with the EDU 140, are able to communicate. The firstcommunication link may be established on the network 110 and may includea wired network, Wi-Fi network, 3G network, 4G network, voice overinternet protocol (VOIP) network, and the like.

A memory unit (MU) 133 is further included within the UD 130 andconfigured to store therein characteristics based on the firstcommunication link, as further described herein below. The UD 130additionally includes a second application, such as a dialer 135embedded within the UD 130, which is configured to establish analternative communication link between the UD 130 and the EDU 140. In anembodiment, the dialer 135 is configured to communicatively connect theUD 130 to the EDU 140 via an alternate transmission path, where thealternate transmission path is different than the default connectionmethod of the first communication link. In an embodiment, the UD 120 isconfigured to connected to the network via at least two methods, such asvia a cellular network, wired network, a WiFi network, a short rangewireless communication protocol, a combination thereof, and the like.

An operating system (OS) 137 is installed on the UD 130. The OS 137 is asystem software configured to manage computer hardware and softwareresources and provide common services for applications, such as theemergency app 131. The OS 137 installed on the UD 130 may be, forexample, Linux® OS, UNIX® OS, iOS®, Android® and the like. The OS 137may be configured to send commands, notifications, and alerts to the app131 based on any identified errors.

The UD 130 further includes a processing circuitry (PC) 139. The PC 139is a hardware component configured to execute the operation of software,including running the OS 137, the dialer 135 and the app 131. The PC 139may be realized as one or more hardware logic components and circuits.For example, and without limitation, illustrative types of hardwarelogic components that can be used include field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs),application-specific standard products (ASSPs), system-on-a-chip systems(SOCs), general-purpose microprocessors, microcontrollers, digitalsignal processors (DSPs), and the like, or any other hardware logiccomponents that can perform calculations or other manipulations ofinformation.

Software shall be construed broadly to mean any type of instructions,whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode,hardware description language, or otherwise. Instructions may includecode (e.g., in source code format, binary code format, executable codeformat, or any other suitable format of code). The instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the PC 139 to perform thevarious processes described herein.

A server 120 may also be coupled to the system 100. The server 120includes a hardware component, and a software component configured toexecute predetermined computing tasks. The server 120 includes aprocessing unit, such as a processor 125, a memory 127 and a storage129. The server 120 may be used to receive data based on, for example, adetected crash of the app 131 associated with the first communicationlink, and store the data on the storage 129 for future retrieval.According to another embodiment, the server 120 may analyze the receiveddata based on the crash for identification of, for example, the sourcethat caused the crash, the time at which the crash occurred, filesaccessed on the user device 130 when the crash happened, network statusand similar relevant parameters of the UD 130.

The server 120 may be configured to be connected to a plurality of userdevices, e.g., UD 130-1 to UD 130-m. Data from each UD 130 may be sentand stored within the storage 129 and used to predict future imminentcrashed of applications, either on the same user device or on otherdevices. Thus, each time a crash occurs, the system collects additionalinformation in order to better predict a potential communicationfailure.

According to an embodiment, the PC 139 is configured to identify animminent crash of an emergency app 131 that has been executed on the UD130. The imminent crash may be caused by, for example, an error in aprocessor command, error in hardware, missing files, corrupt code,network failure, network overload, and the like, each of which may beassociated with the first communication link between the UD 130 and theEDU 140 such that the error causes a break in the first communicationlink. The identification of the imminent crash may include for example,identifying by the PC 139 an error, sending a notification based on theidentified error to the OS 137, and the OS 137 relaying to the emergencyapp 131 a crash signal that is configured to terminate the emergency app130.

According to another embodiment, upon detection of an imminent crash ofthe emergency app 131, the PC 139 may suspend the crash of the emergencyapp 131 by, for example, executing a certain command, such as a “sleep”command. The “sleep” command may suspend the crash of the emergency app131 for a predefined period of time, e.g., 15 seconds, until a furtherstep is performed.

After a first communication link is established, reconnectioninformation is recorded. Reconnection information is data related toestablishing an additional connection between the UD 130 and the EDU140, and may include a direct phone number to contact the EDU 140, aVOIP identification of the emergency dispatcher unit, such as ausername, and the like. In an embodiment, the PC 139 may be configuredto store the reconnection information in the MU 133 when the firstcommunication link is established.

For example, the information may indicate that the first communicationlink was established between a UD 130 currently located at Queens, N.Y.,having a phone number of 1-718-555-0123, and a 9-1-1 dispatcher unitlocated in Manhattan, N.Y. According to the same example, thecharacteristics may also include the specific telephone numberassociated with a particular telephone station associated with the EDU140, and an alternative method of reaching the operator for thatstation.

The UD 130 is monitored to detect any potential imminent applicationcrashes that would affect the first communication link. The PC 139 isconfigured to collect and analyze one or more connection parametersbased on the first communication link and may include files accessed onthe user device during the first connection link, network status,operating system errors, and emergency application responsiveness. Theone or more connection parameters may be stored on and collected from,for example, the MU 133.

If an imminent crash is detected, the PC 139 may be configured to causea second application, such as the dialer 135 of the UD 130, to dial thespecific telephone number associated with the EDU 140 establishing asecond communication link prior to the crash of the emergency app 131.According to one embodiment, the second communication link may beestablished on, for example, a cellular network. Thus, before the firstcommunication link becomes ineffective, the dialer 135 enables thecontinuous connection of the UD 130 to the same EDU 140 using, forexample, a cellular network. Therefore, a voice call, multimediastreaming, texting, and other means of communication between the UD 130and EDU 140 will continue uninterrupted, shifting from the firstcommunication link to the second communication link without a noticeableloss of connection.

As a non-limiting example, a person wishing to report a fire to anemergency service such as 9-1-1, can use an emergency applicationinstalled on the person's mobile phone. The application connects themobile phone with a 9-1-1 dispatcher unit, using, for example, 4Gnetwork, and the mobile phone can start to transmit multimedia. If anerror occurs, it is detected by the PC 139. Based on the detection, thePC 139 is configured to extract the specific telephone number associatedwith the EDU 140, and cause the dialer 135 to dial the telephone numberassociated with the 9-1-1 dispatcher using a cellular network within apredefined period of time before the first communication link fails.

It should be clear that an emergency dispatcher center may include amultitude of dispatchers, each having a unique telephone number orextension. If a dispatcher is manning, for example, work-station number28 and begins to communicate with a UD 130 using the first communicationlink, e.g., over VOIP, the second communication link will be establishedbetween the UD 130-5 and the work-station number 28 when an imminentcrash is detected. Although the emergency app 131 installed within theUD 130 may crash, the communication link between the UD 130 and thedispatcher located at work-station number 28 will continue using, forexample, a cellular network.

As a non-limiting example, establishing the second communication linkmay be achieved by providing a phone number of the UD 130 that isidentified by the PC 139 while establishing the first communication linkto a private branch exchange (PBX) of the EDU 140. According to the sameexample, the PBX that routes the initial emergency call stores theinformation associated with the call, i.e., the phone number of the UD130 and the specific dispatcher's work station to which the initial callwas routed. According to the same example, in case the initial emergencycall is disconnected, the PBX may connect a second call dialed by thesame UD 130 to the same dispatcher for ensuring the continuouscommunication between the UD 130 and the EDU 140. For example, the PBXassociated with the EDU may identify the first communication link fromthe UD with the parameters associated thereto. When an imminentdisconnection of the fist communication link is detected, and the UD isused for dialing to the dispatcher unit once again, the PBX routes acall from that UD to the same particular dispatcher.

According to another embodiment, when the PC 139 identifies an imminentcrash of the emergency app 131 operative on the UD 130, the PC 139 maysend a notification based on the identified error to the OS 137. The OS137 then sends a signal to the emergency app 131, e.g., via a UNIX®signal handler. The PC 139 extracts from the MU 133 a plurality ofcharacteristics specific to the EDU, e.g. a direct telephone number ofthe EDU 140. Then the PC 139 may be configured to cause the dialer 135to dial via a second communication link to a specific telephone numberassociated with the same dispatcher of the EDU 140. In this embodiment,the PC 139 is configured to extract data from the first EDU connectionin order to establish a second communication link if deemed necessary.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary and non-limiting flowchart 200 of the system100 for ensuring continuous communication between a user device and anemergency dispatcher unit according to an embodiment. At S210, a firstcommunication link is established between a user device (UD) and anemergency dispatcher unit (EDU). The first communication link may bethrough a wireless network, such as a 4G network, or through a wirednetwork, such as a standard telephonic landline. In an embodiment, thefirst communication link is established through an emergency application(app) running on a user device.

At S220, reconnection information associated with the firstcommunication link is collected from at least one source, such as amemory unit embedded within the UD. The reconnection informationincludes at least one means of connecting with the EDU, such as a directtelephone number or a VOIP username. The collection may be executed viaa processing circuitry or comparable server connected to the UD.

At 230, the system is monitored for an imminent crash of the app runningon the UD, for example by a processing unit of the UD. The detection mayinclude monitoring of the UD to identify an error in a processorcommand, error in hardware, missing files, corrupt code and the like,each of which may be associated with the interruption of the firstcommunication link between the UD and the EDU.

In an embodiment, the monitoring may include analysis of data previouslycollected, i.e., data stored in a separate storage, such as a server,from the same UD or other UDs, where the data can be used to establish aconnection between specific detected connection parameters and thelikelihood of an application crash. The analysis may include applyingstatistical analysis to the collected data.

At S240, a second communication link between the UD and the EDU isestablished, e.g., using a second application such as a dialer, toconnect to a direct telephone line associated with the EDU 140. Thesecond communication link is established before the first communicationlink is lost, enabling continuous transmission without any break. AtS250, it is checked whether to continue the operation and if so,execution continues with S220; otherwise, the execution terminates.

The various embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as hardware,firmware, software, or any combination thereof. Moreover, the softwareis preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied ona program storage unit or computer readable medium consisting of parts,or of certain devices and/or a combination of devices. The applicationprogram may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising anysuitable architecture. Preferably, the machine is implemented on acomputer platform having hardware such as one or more central processingunits (“CPCs”), a memory, and input/output interfaces. The computerplatform may also include an operating system and microinstruction code.The various processes and functions described herein may be either partof the microinstruction code or part of the application program, or anycombination thereof, which may be executed by a CPC, whether or not sucha computer or processor is explicitly shown. In addition, various otherperipheral units may be connected to the computer platform such as anadditional data storage unit and a printing unit. Furthermore, anon-transitory computer readable medium is any computer readable mediumexcept for a transitory propagating signal.

As used herein, the phrase “at least one of” followed by a listing ofitems means that any of the listed items can be utilized individually,or any combination of two or more of the listed items can be utilized.For example, if a system is described as including “at least one of A,B, and C,” the system can include A alone; B alone; C alone; A and B incombination; B and C in combination; A and C in combination; or A, B,and C in combination.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended forpedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principlesof the disclosed embodiment and the concepts contributed by the inventorto furthering the art, and are to be construed as being withoutlimitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions.Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, andembodiments of the disclosed embodiments, as well as specific examplesthereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functionalequivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalentsinclude both currently known equivalents as well as equivalentsdeveloped in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform thesame function, regardless of structure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for ensuring continuous communicationbetween a user device and an emergency dispatcher unit, comprising:establishing a first communication link between a user device and anemergency dispatcher unit via a first application installed on the userdevice; receiving reconnection information based on the firstcommunication link; monitoring the first communication link fordetection of an imminent crash of the first application based onanalysis of connection parameters; and establishing, using thereconnection information, a second communication link between the userdevice and the emergency dispatcher through a second application when animminent crash is detected, wherein the second communication link isestablished before the first application has crashed, such that there iscontinuous transmission of communication between the user device and theemergency dispatcher unit.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thereconnection information comprises at least one of: a direct telephonenumber of the emergency dispatcher unit, a voice over internet protocolidentification of the emergency dispatcher unit.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein each of the connection parameters comprises at least one of:files accessed on the user device during the first connection link, anetwork status, a network load, operating system errors, and anapplication responsiveness.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondapplication is a dialer, and wherein establishing the secondcommunication link further comprises: causing the dialer of the userdevice to connect to the emergency dispatcher unit using thereconnection information.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstcommunication link and the second communication link are establishedover at least one of: a wireless network, a cellular network, and awired network.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communicationlink and the second link are established over different networks.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: sending the analyzed connectionparameters to a remote server when an imminent crash is detected.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein connection parameters are accessed from theremote server are used in determining if the detected crash is imminent.9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereoninstructions for causing a processing circuitry to perform a process,the process comprising: establishing a first communication link betweena user device and an emergency dispatcher unit via a first applicationinstalled on the user device; receiving reconnection information basedon the first communication link; monitoring the first communication linkfor detection of an imminent crash of the first application based onanalysis of connection parameters; and establishing, using thereconnection information, a second communication link between the userdevice and the emergency dispatcher through a second application when animminent crash is detected, wherein the second communication link isestablished before the first application has crashed, such that there iscontinuous transmission of communication between the user device and theemergency dispatcher unit.
 10. A user device for ensuring continuouscommunication between a user device and an emergency dispatcher unit,the system comprising: a processing circuitry; and a memory, the memorycontaining instructions that, when executed by the processing circuitry,configure the user device to: establish a first communication linkbetween the user device and an emergency dispatcher unit via a firstapplication installed on the user device; receive reconnectioninformation based on the first communication link; monitor the firstcommunication link for detection of an imminent crash of the firstapplication based on analysis of connection parameters; and establish,using the reconnection information, a second communication link betweenthe user device and the emergency dispatcher through a secondapplication when an imminent crash is detected, wherein the secondcommunication link is established before the first application hascrashed, such that there is continuous transmission of communicationbetween the user device and the emergency dispatcher unit.
 11. The userdevice of claim 10, wherein the reconnection information comprises atleast one of: a direct telephone number of the emergency dispatcherunit, a voice over internet protocol identification of the emergencydispatcher unit.
 12. The user device of claim 10, wherein each of theconnection parameters comprises at least one of: files accessed on theuser device during the first connection link, a network status, anetwork load, operating system errors, and an applicationresponsiveness.
 13. The user device of claim 10, wherein the secondapplication is a dialer, and wherein establishing the secondcommunication link further comprises: causing the dialer of the userdevice to connect to the emergency dispatcher unit using thereconnection information.
 14. The user device of claim 10, wherein thefirst communication link and the second communication link areestablished over at least one of: a wireless network, a cellularnetwork, and a wired network.
 15. The user device of claim 10, whereinthe first communication link and the second link are established overdifferent networks.
 16. The user device of claim 10, wherein the userdevice is further configured to: send the analyzed connection parametersto a remote server when an imminent crash is detected.
 17. The userdevice of claim 16, wherein connection parameters are accessed from theremote server are used in determining if the detected crash is imminent.